Helping the rough sleepers with food and shelter

Outreach teams from groups such as Dublin Simon and Focus Ireland visit rough sleepers every night, writes CARL O'BRIENChief Reporter

EVEN BURIED under two sleeping bags and wrapped up in gloves, a hoodie and layer upon layer of clothes, Joe still wakes up in the middle of the night shivering with cold.

“You can’t keep it out, no matter how much you wrap up,” says Joe (43), who’s been sleeping on the streets of Dublin for the past five years.

“You don’t really sleep. You’re lucky if you get a couple of hours but, beyond that, you’re just trying to get through the night.”

It’s about 9.30pm and the temperature is about -7 degrees and falling. The doorway of the building a short distance away from Leinster House offers some shelter from the elements, but there’s no escaping from the ever- present, all-enveloping, bone-rattling cold.

The Dublin Simon Rough Sleeper team has just arrived with soup, sandwiches and clothes if he needs them.

It also offers access to emergency accommodation.

“I’ve been in them before, but I don’t like them . . . I wouldn’t want to stay there. I have my own reasons,” Joe says.

Skin-blistering cold and biting winds carry very real dangers like hypothermia and frostbite. The priority for authorities is to ensure as many are off the street as possible and in warm surroundings.

While there are well over 2,000 homeless people in the capital, about 60 are sleeping rough on any given night.

As part of a cold weather strategy launched by the Homeless Agency, extra emergency accommodation is being made available to anyone who wants it.

Those who choose to remain outside are being given scarves, hats, gloves, undergarments and sleeping mats.

Outreach teams operated by groups like Dublin Simon and Focus Ireland are visiting rough sleepers every night, encouraging them to access accommodation.

In addition, a night bus operated by Dublin City Council is ferrying an average of about 45 rough sleepers each night into emergency accommodation.

There are signs the strategy is working. Tonight, the Dublin Simon team which operates around the south inner city encounters just four rough sleepers, compared with between 15 and 20 on a typical night.

“Most have probably gone to squats to escape the weather or are in some form of accommodation,” says Neera Browne, who is leading the rough sleeper team tonight.

Overall, authorities say there is sufficient capacity in emergency accommodation centres to ensure everyone has a bed for the night, if they want one.

As part of the cold weather strategy, a special cold weather shelter has been open since November as a “low threshold” facility which makes it easier to access a bed.

In addition, the opening hours of day and evening services are being extended to ensure homeless people have somewhere to go to at all hours of the day.

Not everyone though is satisfied with the measures. Many homeless people have complained about the poor quality of the accommodation and fear being robbed, attacked or sharing with people with severe drug or alcohol problems.

There is also criticism of authorities for not communicating where new emergency accommodation is located.

The Homeless Agency says, however, that it is communicating directly to the people who need it most – entrenched rough sleepers – to ensure those who need it most are availing of the service.

In the meantime, groups such as Trust – a day centre for homeless people – are helping to alleviate the worst weather-related problems.

It has directed at least one homeless man to hospital after he showed symptoms of frostbite.

The fact that many already have poor health puts them at particular risk.

“In general, we’re seeing the ability of people to cope in what are ferocious conditions,” says Alice Leahy of Trust, “but we are very concerned about the hidden homeless people, those who aren’t in contact with any service.”

One of those who is coping well despite the weather is Jaroslav (48), a Polish man with long, dark hair tied back in a pony-tail.

Tonight he is sitting in a doorway close to Baggot Street and preparing to sleep outside. He is feeding a black and white kitten he has adopted in recent months.

He calls him “Ancymon”, which he says is the Polish word for rascal.

“This is not winter for me,” he says, grinning. “Real winter is -35 degrees at home so, for me, this is like autumn or spring.

“Really! It’s not a problem for me.”

He says he spends most of his day looking for change on the ground which he collects into a bulging plastic bag. He turns this into cash at a coin machine in Tesco. (He produces the bag, which is full of five and 10 cent pieces).

“I use the money for food. I buy the cat food and myself. We are both homeless, after all! If you wrap up enough, it is okay. I used to have a tent, but it was stolen. But I will survive okay.”